CIA tries to ease Hill tensions

The Central Intelligence Agency is scrambling to hit “reset” with the Senate.

Top officials from the spy agency and the White House are trying to smooth over tensions that erupted last month when Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) publicly accused the CIA of interfering with her panel’s investigation of interrogation tactics.

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CIA Director John Brennan, who denied Feinstein’s claims, is promising the agency will cooperate with a Senate sergeant at arms probe into how Intelligence Committee staffers got hold of super-secret internal CIA records on the agency’s controversial detainee interrogation program.

“I fully agree that we should find a sensible way to resolve this matter that preserves the crucial equities of both the Legislative and Executive Branches,” Brennan wrote in a private letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, which was dated April 3 and obtained by POLITICO.

Around the same time, Brennan met with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) for a private chat with the No. 2 Democratic leader, who also oversees part of the agency’s secret budget. Brennan has also spoken privately with Feinstein and Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss, ranking member on the panel, to try to cool tempers.

The potential “de-escalation” with the Senate is important for the CIA, since lawmakers have the power to set the agency’s budget, authorize key programs and put the agency in even more hot water over the use of harsh interrogation tactics against detainees.

Some even hope that the behind-the-scenes maneuvering could quell a growing power struggle between the Senate Intelligence Committee and the CIA that could hurt the country’s efforts to combat major security threats at home and abroad.

“There’s no question they’d like to see the tension between the CIA and the Senate Intelligence Committee reduced,” Durbin said. “That was the subject of our discussion, and it went on for some time. But I think there are some basic issues here that go beyond personalities and really go to the heart of the constitutional relationship between the executive and legislative branch.”

Though President Barack Obama has not stepped into the dispute, the White House is involved in the reset effort. White House Counsel Kathy Ruemmler has played a key behind-the-scenes role. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has also tried to mediate a resolution, said sources close to the issue.

Even Vice President Joe Biden has considered holding high-level talks between senior CIA officials and Senate Intelligence Committee leaders.

Some participants in the dispute have floated several ideas for ending the showdown, including the CIA withdrawing a criminal referral to the Justice Department the agency is pursuing against Intelligence Committee staffers. So far, that has not occurred, several sources said. Feinstein has said the CIA was trying to intimidate her staff by making the referral.

Chambliss, who had previously thrown cold water on Feinstein’s allegations, has joined her in seeking more information from the administration over the dispute, a move that demonstrates the political problems the CIA faces. In a March 27 letter obtained by POLITICO, the two asked Brennan to formally respond to a “number of questions” related to the CIA’s search of computer systems used by Intelligence Committee staffers to obtain the detention program report, also known as the “Panetta Review,” after former CIA Director Leon Panetta. The two senators had sent Brennan a similar letter in January only to have to Brennan ignore it.

The 14 questions — sent to Brennan on March 27 — include queries over whether Brennan personally approved the search; did the CIA “seek or receive legal guidance” for the search; did the CIA obtain a search warrant before conducting its search; what exactly did the CIA find in its search; and was anyone outside of the CIA “aware of the possibility or plans to” conduct the search, including Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, DOJ, the FBI and White House.

The Justice Department also continues to run parallel criminal probes into whether CIA officials improperly searched a Senate computer system to find out what information Senate staffers learned about the highly classified detainee program, as well as how the Senate Intelligence aides accessed the document on that Langley, Va.-based computer in the first place.

After Feinstein’s extraordinary allegations on the Senate floor about CIA interference and intimidation related to her panel’s proble, Brennan fired back.

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” he said during a March 11 appearance before the Council on Foreign Relations. CIA officials argue that it was the Senate committee that illegally accessed confidential agency documents in trying to complete a report riddled with errors.

The “he said, she said” nature of the dispute prompted a furious Reid to fire off a sternly worded letter to Brennan and Attorney General Eric Holder calling on the Senate’s top law enforcement official, Sergeant at Arms Terrance Gainer, to investigate the incident and explore how computers used by Senate officials in Langley, Va. were allegedly interfered with by CIA officials.

Since then, Gainer has interviewed Brennan along with other top CIA officials, including its inspector general and chief counsel, and he says he hopes the review could be concluded by the time he leaves his post later this spring.

“They have been wonderfully cooperative,” Gainer said.

Asked whether he had confidence in Brennan as CIA director, Reid referred instead to his correspondence with the CIA director.

“I haven’t had a meeting since we exchanged letters. He sent me a nice letter [in response to] the one I wrote to him. We’ll see what happens.”

In the letter, Brennan added that he was “hopeful that we are currently on a path toward putting this matter behind us in a way that will ultimately strengthen our respective agencies.”

Senators and members on both sides of the aisle said that the early entreaties don’t mean there haven’t been additional bumps in the road. Part of the problem is Brennan himself. He has a gruff personality that sometimes rubs lawmakers the wrong way, making a cease-fire between the CIA and the Senate difficult to implement.

“I wouldn’t work for him,” said Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), a senior member of the Intelligence Committee. “He’s not a sociable guy.”

Still, Burr noted, “There is a difference between an individual who can be difficult to work for and one that is effective at their job, and I think he’s effective.”

Others wouldn’t give Brennan that kind of charity.

“I’ve never had a particularly good relationship with Brennan,” said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a senior member of the Armed Services Committee. “He’s just very difficult to work with.”

McCain added: “I’ve never seen this degree of separation between the Intelligence Committee and the director of the CIA — ever. It’s got to be a problem.”

Over concerns from CIA officials and defense hawks, Feinstein pushed through her committee last week a request to declassify the summary and findings of a 6,300-page report on the agency’s practices under the Bush administration. That declassification request is now under White House review for approval or denial, but Democrats on the panel are already warning they may push to declassify the full report.

In an interview this week, Feinstein refused to say whether the CIA’s fence-mending tour is having an effect, only saying “yes” when asked whether her recent meeting with Brennan was collegial.

“I’m not going to discuss it,” Feisntein added when pushed to comment further about Brennan.

Part of the administration’s effort, too, seems to revolve around bringing in Clapper to meet with lawmakers as well. Clapper seems to have warmer relationships with many senators.

“Clapper is always a positive force, and I’ve had meetings with him and Brennan in my office. He’s always been a positive force – keeping things smooth as much as possible,” said Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), a former chairman of the Intelligence panel.

Asked whether Clapper is more effective in that regard than Brennan, Rockefeller deadpanned and said: “Yes.”